Saturday 14 March 2009 23.51 EDT
First published on Saturday 14 March 2009 23.51 EDT

England won their warm-up match ahead of the one-day series against West Indies thanks to half-centuries from Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ravi Bopara and stand-in captain Ian Bell. The tourists racked up 299 for eight from their 50 overs against a West Indies Players Association XI, and, despite lower-order resistance, bowled out their opponents for 248 to win by 51 runs.

The result was briefly in doubt, as the hosts rallied from 100 for seven to add 114 runs for the eighth wicket, but James Anderson, who took three for 47, and Steve Harmison (4-59) returned to clean up the tail with six overs still remaining.

It was a far from perfect display from a side led by Bell in the absence of Andrew Strauss, and missing regulars such as Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad. The Yorkshire leg-spinner, Adil Rashid, in particular took some punishment with the ball, seeing his six overs disappear for 41 runs after England's pacemen had done the damage at the top of the order.

Two wickets apiece for Anderson, Harmison and Amjad Khan put England on course for an emphatic win with the score at 66 for six, but after Gareth Batty, called up in place of the injured Graeme Swann, had made it seven down, Kenroy Williams and Samuel Badree combined for a century partnership. The No9 Badree top-scored with 84 not out, but the partnership was eventually broken by Anderson as the home side's hopes of victory subsided.

Having won the toss, England recovered from a slow start to post a competitive total. Steven Davies, one of three uncapped players chosen – Rashid and Khan the other two – opened the batting with Bopara, but departed for two with the score on 15. Bell then played the supporting role in a partnership of 67 with Bopora – the Essex man making 56 before being stumped – and went on to score 55 before three wickets fell in six overs.

Batting at six, Mascarenhas, who hit five sixes in an over during his run in the ODI side in 2007, added some impetus to England's effort, crashing an unbeaten 84 from 54 balls, and giving his watching skipper, Strauss, a timely reminder of his abilities.

Speaking before the game, Strauss acknowledged that England need to improve their limited-overs performances if they are to secure a first win of the winter. They take on West Indies in a Twenty20 international later today (18.00 GMT), before contesting five ODIs against a side two places below them in the ICC rankings.

"I think we've got a good idea of the type of cricket we want to play," said Strauss. "One thing that is very important for us is to get more out of the players we've got. We need to score more hundreds, be more consistent and put other teams under pressure more often. That's going to be the issue for us, to get more out of the players we've got because there's a lot of talent there.

"It's important in one-day cricket not to play with fear. I think fear creates a lot of problems both individually and collectively, but it's a lot easier said than done to just go out and not play with fear. You need to earn the right to do that, but as a general theme it's important we play good aggressive cricket with the bat and the ball."